Settings

Open the gear icon on Home or the bottom bar. These are your app's preferences. To change something shared with participants, use Server Settings.

Tab	What you will find
My Profile	Nickname, picture, visibility, language, identity and backups
Voice and Video	Devices, microphone, PTT, outputs, noise suppression and camera
Soundboard / Stickers	Local folders and library controls
Keybinds	Key combinations for quick actions
Notifications and Sounds	Personal sounds and notices
Quality & sharing	Voice, camera and screen profiles, codec, local preview and telemetry
Bot tools	Local installations, permissions, cache, tasks and data bots kept on this computer
Logs	Local events and client diagnostics
About and Updates	Version, updates, window behavior and community

My Profile

Change your nickname and picture here. Language immediately applies Português (Brasil) or English and saves the preference on this computer.

Under Identity, export/import your cryptographic identity to keep being recognized on servers. See the precautions in Getting started.

Servers and settings exports a .monkybackup protected by your chosen password, which follows the same rule as the identity export. Select what to include/restore; this data can also accompany an identity export. Saved servers can include passwords and are not written in plain text in this backup. Without the chosen password, the file cannot be recovered. Files from earlier versions still open; new ones only open in an updated Monky, and an earlier version reports them as an invalid backup file.

When exporting the identity, check Friends to bring your friend list and, optionally, Conversation history to bring your direct messages. Under Direct messages, choose the Maximum received file size: your friends see this limit and cannot send you larger files. See Friends and direct messages.

Game activity

On Windows, Monky recognizes the game open on Steam. That is all for now: games from other stores or launchers (Epic, Riot, Battle.net, EA, Ubisoft, GOG) and games opened outside Steam do not show up, and game activity does not work on macOS. Only the game's name and icon leave your computer; the process list and executable paths stay on it.

• Show the game I am playing (off by default): people in your servers see the game when they click you and in the voice channel list.
• Suggest sharing my game (on by default): in a voice channel, shows a shortcut above your controls to stream the game. Works even without showing the game to others.

See Sharing a game.

Log out

The red Log out button, at the end of the tab list, deletes the identity, friends, direct messages and saved servers with their passwords from this computer. Before confirming, use Export identity first if you want to use that identity again later: without a backup it cannot be recovered. Computer preferences such as audio, language and shortcuts are kept. Monky then reopens on the create or import identity screen.

Quality, bitrate and telemetry

Under Quality & sharing, presets, codec and custom values are grouped with Video telemetry. Voice and Video contains devices, audio processing and previews. To show FPS, resolution and bitrate over camera/screen video, use Quality & sharing → Video telemetry: the switch, position and mode are saved and applied without restarting the stream.

The copy button includes up to 20 recent video samples. Repainting the same stage or recreating only its local preview does not discard the stream's RTP measurements. Changing the source, channel or session, or disabling telemetry, resets the history. null values mean unavailable data, not zero.

In the Custom profile, hover or use Tab to reach the question icon next to each Bitrate. The tooltip explains the effect and cost: higher bitrate can preserve detail; lower bitrate saves bandwidth but may reduce fidelity or produce video blocks. It does not increase resolution or FPS by itself.

As a starting point for one outgoing video copy, use measured upload, not the advertised download speed:

Upload	Initial bitrate ceiling
5 Mbps	2000 kbps
10 Mbps	5000 kbps
20 Mbps	10000 kbps
50 Mbps or more	20000 kbps

Leave at least 30% headroom and subtract other traffic, including audio, camera and simultaneous screen shares. In P2P, each recipient gets a copy; in SFU, count the outgoing stream to the server. These are starting points, not quality guarantees: codec, content, resolution and FPS also affect bandwidth needs. For voice, start at 24–32 kbps per copy; 48–64 kbps provides higher fidelity. With 1 Mbps upload, 64 kbps uses 6.4% per copy before other costs.

Watching shared screens

In the voice channel, click Watch broadcast on the screen you want to open. The announcement that someone is sharing does not start receiving its video and audio on its own. Stop watching stops delivery of that screen only to you, without turning off your microphone, camera or the stream for other viewers. This applies to both P2P and SFU.

You can also start from the voice channel list or the member list: click the screen-share icon next to the publisher's name or the LIVE badge. Monky asks whether you want to watch and, once you confirm, opens the stage focused on that broadcast, already watching it. If you are not in the same voice channel, the question tells you that you will join it. Your own icon and badge only show that you are broadcasting.

Shared audio belongs to the publisher: if you are watching two of their screens, stopping one keeps the audio needed by the other. Stopping the last one also ends that audio reception. Muting is a separate playback preference; it does not replace Stop watching when you want to save bandwidth.

Changing pages, using a pop-out window or enabling the overlay does not change the screens you chose to watch in the call. Away from the stage, the You are watching notice above your user bar shows Back to stage, which reopens the call's stage, and Stop watching. Leaving the call or ending the source clears that choice; a new broadcast must be selected again. When the publisher switches the shared window or screen, you keep watching the new source automatically, with the same chosen quality and stage focus, without clicking Watch broadcast again. This applies to a new source published within 15 seconds of the previous one; a second screen that already existed never opens on its own. If the broadcast was in PiP, PiP closes and the new source takes the previous one's stage focus. A transport reconnection preserves the choice while the same source remains valid.

On Windows, Firefox, Chrome, Edge and browsers based on them stop drawing a window that another window fully covers, for example when you maximize another window over it on the same monitor. That window's broadcast freezes until it shows again. Covering only part of it does not cause the problem. The picker warns when you choose one of these windows and, while broadcasting, a yellow warning appears over your preview on the stage when it is fully covered and its picture stopped changing. The warning suggests moving the other window out of the way and, if the picture stays frozen, stopping the share and starting again. Sometimes the browser keeps drawing the covered window; the broadcast then continues normally and no warning appears. A paused video in a covered window also shows the warning, because the still picture looks the same. To avoid it, keep part of the window visible, share the entire screen, or turn the behavior off in the browser:

• Firefox: in about:config, set widget.windows.window_occlusion_tracking.enabled to false and restart Firefox.
• Chrome, Edge and similar: close the browser and start it with --disable-features=CalculateNativeWinOcclusion in its shortcut. The option that used to exist in chrome://flags has been removed.

A minimized window also freezes the broadcast, in any program: Windows does not draw minimized windows, and no application can capture them. Viewers see a frozen picture until you restore the window, and the broadcast resumes on its own. While the shared window is minimized or hidden, a yellow warning over your preview on the stage explains why. Only you see this warning.

The last viewer to stop also closes that profile's capture, encoder and sending pipeline, including the upload to the SFU. The source announcement remains available to watch again. Signaling, connection control, voice and camera can still use the network.

Native sharing and viewer quality

The picker shows available capture methods. The encoder and codec are selected under Quality & sharing. Availability is confirmed for the combination of codec, resolution, FPS, and bitrate; the GPU brand does not guarantee support. There is no automatic switch to Chromium or another source. The automatic Game Capture to Normal attempt, when needed, uses only the same window and displays a notice.

For up to 3840×2160, 240 FPS and 80000 kbps, select Custom under Quality & sharing; existing presets remain unchanged. 4K screen sharing is capped at 120 FPS: reaching 3840 px wide or 2160 px high automatically limits the FPS field and dropdown. Typed values obey the same ceilings; values above them are adjusted with a visible notice. These profiles are available for H.264 and AV1, subject to encoder and receiver support. 1080p/240 and 4K/60 require H.264 Level 5.2; 4K/120 requires Level 6.0. Camera keeps its 120 FPS ceiling, or 60 FPS at 4K. It uses Chromium capture and the modes offered by the webcam, a different path from native screen capture.

The Video format appears below Screen encoding only while the screen is sent in H.264, and decides who can watch it. Better quality, the default on the desktop app and the web version, uses H.264 Main, which Chrome, Edge and the desktop app watch. Compatible uses H.264 Constrained Baseline, which everyone watches, Firefox and Safari included; 4K above 64 FPS is lowered, because Firefox decodes this profile only up to Level 5.2. The format does not change the codec: Automatic still picks AV1 when available, and with AV1 the option is hidden and has no effect. The choice applies from the next share.

Every quality change — preset, resolution, FPS, bitrate, codec, or Hardware/Software — validates the combination before applying it. When needed, the app finds a lower FPS confirmed by the encoder, preserving resolution, bitrate, and explicit codec and mode choices in Manual, and shows a toast explaining what changed and why. For example, hardware H.264 at 4K120 can be adjusted to 4K60 when that is the GPU's compatible profile. Manual does not silently switch to Software or another codec. Automatic retains its codec and mode negotiation. It does not invent driver bitrate limits. Without a confirmed combination, it leaves the quality profile and stream unchanged and displays a friendly notice. During a stream, preflight keeps the old source while checking the new configuration. Leave bandwidth for your game and every outgoing profile. In the picker, Keep aspect ratio fits the image into the selected dimensions, adding borders when needed without distortion. Off retains the current stretch-to-fill behavior. The switch starts on for each new screen share and is not a global preference.

A new screen share's preview enters focus as soon as its tile is available. You can unfocus it: quality changes, reconnections and capture-method retries do not refocus it. With one screen in focus, scroll to zoom without holding Ctrl; drag to pan the enlarged image and double-click to reset. The preview and each viewer show a Normal or Game badge for the confirmed mode of that stream, including in thumbnails. Until an image confirms the mode, the badge stays hidden; selecting Game Capture alone does not establish that Game is in use.

When watching a native screen, Received quality requests a real sender profile: Source maximum or profiles capped at 1080p/60, 720p/60 and 480p/30. All respect the publisher's configured limit; equivalent choices are not repeated. The 480p ceiling uses 852×480 for encoder compatibility. This changes transmitted media, not just the player's size. Different profiles can require additional encoders and upload bandwidth. Configured resolution, FPS and bitrate are limits, not performance guarantees. Update both client and server together to use this behavior.

Appear offline

Under My Profile → Visibility → Appear offline, the switch changes your presence on every connected server, including background connections. You move to the offline section of the member list and see Invisible, with a high-contrast hollow circular indicator in the bottom bar. Other members see your presence as offline; changing your nickname or picture does not make you appear online again.

This does not disconnect the client or interrupt an ongoing call. Your participation in a voice channel remains visible in that channel.

Voice and Video

Choose the microphone and watch its meter before joining a call. Set voice detection above the room's level when quiet. Check the audio output and use headphones for the local test.

Open full-size screenshot (new tab)

Previews are local. Opening these settings does not unmute or authorize transmission on its own.

Quick audio controls

The microphone/headphone icons and their arrows share the same style in the bottom bar. The arrows open an upward panel showing the current device. Hover over that information or click it to open the side list of devices. Use the arrow keys to navigate; Esc closes the side list first, then the panel.

The microphone panel also shows Input level as a segmented bar. Selections use the same Voice and Video settings and are saved. The meter is a local preview: it does not unmute your microphone or transmit your voice. Closing the panel stops the preview. The Voice settings button opens the corresponding tab directly.

The green speaking border on your avatar and in the channel list only lights up during a call with an active, unmuted microphone, respecting PTT. Outside a call, only the local meters in open microphone settings keep working. These previews do not activate the call's speaking indicator, and pressing the PTT shortcut outside a call does not activate it either.

Right-clicking your own name also opens the user menu, both in the lists and on your bottom-bar profile. This menu lets you toggle manual microphone mute and deafen, including before joining a call. The voice-volume control only appears for other users; all other actions still respect server permissions. Manual mute never removes an administrator restriction.

Administrative microphone and audio restrictions apply to the identity on that server, including its other devices. Leaving and rejoining the call, switching servers, or restarting the app or server does not remove the restriction: an administrator must lift it.

Members with mute or deafen permissions can apply and remove these restrictions from the member list's right-click menu, even while the person is outside voice or disconnected. The menu fetches the current restriction before enabling the action. Kicking from voice and moving channels still require a voice connection.

On the controls, the icon and its color show your personal mute; an administrator restriction appears separately as a red prohibition badge, only while viewing the corresponding server, even without joining a voice channel. The server sends this restriction on connection, including after reopening the app. When switching servers, the badge and tooltip reflect only the restrictions of the server being viewed. The actual restrictions of a call on another server remain enforced. In participant lists, personal mute is gray and administrator restrictions remain red. The overlay continues to show the active call's participants.

Both client and server must be updated to exchange this information before joining voice.

Input mode and Push to Talk

Under Voice and Video → Input Mode, choose one of the two cards: Voice Activity (VAD) or Push to Talk. The cards also support keyboard activation, without radio buttons.

With PTT enabled, the microphone button in the bottom-left corner gains a borderless PTT label below the icon: yellow with a voice-input icon while waiting for the key and green with an open microphone while transmitting. Manual mute or deafen shows only a red crossed-out microphone, without the PTT label. An administrator restriction adds the red prohibition badge without replacing your personal icon or hiding the PTT label. The restriction prevents transmission even when your personal mute is off. Outside a call, the waiting state is gray.

Clicking the button still toggles manual mute. Holding the PTT key does not undo that mute: it only opens the microphone when allowed. The state follows the actual microphone gate, including the release delay after letting go of the key. The configured key and state description appear in the tooltip and settings; there is no longer a separate indicator on the call stage.

Microphone test

Under Voice and Video, the test lets you start and stop local playback of your voice while watching the segmented bar. Use headphones to avoid feedback between your speakers and microphone. Playback only begins when you start the test; this preview is not sent to the voice channel and does not change your mute or Push-to-Talk state. If you are already unmuted in a call, that call continues transmitting your voice normally. Leaving the tab or closing settings stops the test.

Noise suppression engines

Under Voice and Video → Noise suppression, choose an engine and compare the result using Test microphone. The preview uses the same processing selected for calls without transmitting the test to other people.

Option	Use and limitations
RNNoise	Monky's default neural engine.
Speex	A lightweight classic filter suited to steady noise.
GTCRN	An alternative speech-focused neural network; it runs internally at 16 kHz, limiting music and high-frequency fidelity.
WebRTC (built-in)	Suppression integrated into the application's WebRTC audio processing.
Off	No noise suppression; echo cancellation and automatic gain control remain active.

All engines run locally and ship their assets with the application. Perceived strength depends on the microphone and environment; no engine is best in every situation. Built-in suppression is not stacked with RNNoise, Speex or GTCRN.

Switching preserves the outgoing call track and respects mute and PTT. The quick suppression button turns processing off or restores the last selected engine. Its adjacent arrow lets you choose an engine without leaving the current view or open its settings directly. Failures are reported instead of silently switching to unfiltered audio.

Audio outputs by category

Under Voice and Video → General output, choose the application's default device. This also applies to chat videos, including the expanded media viewer. The headphone arrow in quick controls changes this same general output.

The Advanced outputs switch reveals selectors for Voice channel, Screen share audio and Chat media. Use general output follows the main selection; System default explicitly selects the operating-system device even when the general output is different.

Alerts and soundboard playback still use the general output. Turning advanced mode off returns every category to general routing without deleting individual choices. Preferences are saved and also apply to amplified volumes above 100%. Device identifiers are not imported from another computer's backup.

If saved devices disconnect and prevent changes from applying, use Use system default for all outputs. This explicit action resets the general output, clears category choices and turns advanced mode off. It remains accessible while advanced selectors are collapsed, allowing recovery even when several devices disappear together.

Camera effects and preview

Under Voice and Video → Camera, preview is on by default when these controls open. Its visibility control sits above the effects: turning it off retains the preview rectangle with a Preview off message. This capture stays local and does not turn on camera transmission in the call. The visibility choice lasts for the current opening; reopening the controls enables preview again. If the call camera is already on, both share one capture; hiding or closing the preview does not stop it. Changing the device also updates the call, even with the preview closed.

In quick controls, the arrow beside the camera opens device selection, preview and effect controls, with a button that opens the corresponding settings section.

Mode	Result
Off	Video without a background effect.
Blur	Person segmentation with a blurred background.
Color	A solid virtual background, including green, without a physical green screen.
Image	A local image used as a virtual background.
Chroma key	Removes a color from the physical scene, usually a green screen, replacing it with a color or image.

Chroma key differs from a green virtual background: it removes the selected color throughout the image, including clothing and objects of that color. Call video does not carry transparency; the cutout receives the selected replacement background. Tolerance, edge and spill-reduction controls help with physical screens. White, black and gray are also valid key colors; brightness participates in matching these shades so that all grays are not treated as the same color. Automatic segmentation is approximate and can fail around hair, edges and difficult lighting; do not treat it as a guarantee that sensitive information in the background is hidden. Each adjustment has a ? button with an explanation: hover over it or focus it with the keyboard to read the help without changing the setting.

PNG, JPEG and WebP images up to 8 MiB are accepted, with additional dimension limits to prevent excessive resource use. The image is normalized and saved locally with the preferences, outside the general settings backup. With Limit to 720p / 30 FPS off by default, effects follow both the selected quality profile's resolution and FPS. Enable the switch to reduce processing, capping both at 1280 × 720 and 30 FPS. It never raises a lower resolution or frame rate, or upscales a smaller capture. Camera capabilities and processing capacity can also reduce the actual frame rate. Turning effects off preserves normal camera quality.

The model and processing ship with the application and need no external API: frames are processed locally before being sent through the P2P or SFU call. If processing fails, the camera stops and reports the error rather than silently reverting to unprocessed video. Turning the effect off requires an explicit choice.

Cutout uses Robust Video Matting (RVM), estimating foreground color and transparency while using previous frames to follow motion. Blur, color and image effects require a WebGL2 GPU; if unavailable, the effect is not enabled and the camera stops with an error. There is no silent switch to another model. Physical chroma retains CPU composition when WebGL2 is unavailable. Final video resolution still follows your selected profile. Blur preserves framing and uses the mask to prevent foreground colors from spreading into the background near the contour. Matting is automatic: legacy Person cutout threshold and Cutout edge softness controls are not applied to RVM, preserving hair and edge transparency. Their saved values are retained without changing other preferences. The graph and weights total about 4.4 MB, in addition to the TensorFlow.js runtime. Licenses and sources are available in camera settings. Lighting and framing limitations still apply; this does not guarantee an identical cutout to other apps.

Call overlay

Preserve card aspect ratio keeps cards at 16:9 as the overlay is resized or participants change. Turn the switch off for the previous free layout. Drag from empty areas and cards, not only the header; buttons remain clickable. A thin line highlights the actual window boundary on hover. Resize from the corners or edges: the native cursor indicates the direction, without additional icons over the overlay.

Color picker

The physical chroma-key screen color, virtual background color and role colors share Monky's color picker. Click the color swatch to open hue, saturation and brightness controls, presets and a HEX field that accepts three or six digits.

Releasing a dragged control or choosing a preset applies the selection. After entering a valid HEX code, Enter, the close button or an outside click confirms it; closing the picker does not undo the chosen color. Invalid input is explained in the panel. Escape cancels only unfinished input and closes the picker without closing the surrounding settings.

The Eyedropper lets you choose a screen color. During sampling, Escape cancels only the eyedropper, retaining the previous color and keeping the panel open. Permission and capture failures are reported without replacing the color with a default. Sampling does not disable effects or transmit an unprocessed camera to the call.

Soundboard and stickers

The soundboard automatically creates a default folder in your local Monky profile. You can change it under Settings → Soundboard; an existing folder selection is never replaced. For stickers, choose a folder in the corresponding tab. These are local libraries, not server folders. Configuring a folder does not upload all its files. Monky only reads sounds and stickers from folders chosen on this computer. A folder that arrived another way, such as by restoring a backup, is confirmed once: Monky asks when you open the soundboard or the stickers. If you decline, Try again (soundboard) or the reload-folder button (stickers) asks again; you can also choose another folder. See Everyday Soundboard and sticker use for formats, sending and permissions.

Local soundboard limit

Control overly loud sounds is off by default. Even while off, set the Loudness ceiling from 1 to 10; the initial value is 6. Enable the switch to reveal the controls and apply the selected ceiling. Turning it off collapses the controls without clearing the saved value. Expansion and collapse are animated and respect the system's reduced-motion preference. A lower ceiling reduces excessively loud sounds more. Sounds below the ceiling keep their volume; quieter sounds are never boosted. In the Soundboard modal, click Soundboard settings next to the volume control to expand an inline section below the volume without covering the sound list. It starts collapsed and preserves the Loudness control heading and explanation even while the limiter is disabled. Use Limit loud sounds to reveal the ceiling adjustment and meter. The section stays open when playing, stopping, searching or switching sounds, so you can adjust the ceiling while listening. Click the settings button again or press Esc inside the modal to collapse it; clicking sounds does not close settings. Changes are saved automatically. The button is blue only while the section is open and returns to its neutral color when collapsed, even if limiting remains enabled. The level stays in its tooltip. Collapsing the section gives the space back to the library. Both views share the preference and support keyboard operation. During playback, a marker on the bar shows loudness before reduction, on the same scale as the ceiling. The round slider thumb sets the ceiling; the moving marker and “Before limiting” value show the actual audio. The bar uses a neutral scale without colored bands. Text indicates whether the sound is below, near or above the ceiling. Values above 10 remain visible in the text even when the marker reaches the end of the bar. The scale and the limiter's audio behavior are unchanged.

The ceiling applies after mixing soundboard clips, including local library previews, and after your selected volume: simultaneous sounds also respect the limit. Voice, music and what other participants hear do not change.

The decision considers frequency-weighted audio energy over time, rather than just the highest peak. Separate protection prevents excessive digital peaks. Processing looks ahead by approximately 100 ms to reduce loud sounds from the start, including short effects.

The scale is relative: it neither measures nor guarantees physical headphone or speaker loudness, which also depends on the system and device. It cannot restore an already distorted recording. Both settings persist across restarts.

Sound and server favorites

Use stars to mark sounds in the soundboard grid/list and under Settings → Soundboard, or servers in Home's Saved list. The All/Favorites filter combines with search without duplicating items. Favorites appear first in alphabetical order, followed by nonfavorites in alphabetical order. Starring or unstarring moves items with a smooth transition; switching All/Favorites also animates the list change. Animations respect the system's reduced-motion preference. Stars support Enter and space without playing a sound or opening a server.

Sound favorites identify the complete file path: matching names in different folders are distinct. Returning to a previous folder restores its stars. Server favorites follow address and port; renaming preserves the star and editing the address transfers it. Deleting a server removes its favorite.

These preferences stay local and do not travel in the general backup. Importing servers preserves stars for retained addresses and removes those for removed addresses. Sorting preserves each sound's assigned shortcuts and does not change the server rail.

Keybinds

Keyboard shortcuts

Under Keybinds, choose Record shortcut (or Change shortcut). Hold every key in the combination together, then release all keys to save. For example, Ctrl + Q + W + E contains three ordinary keys, not just modifiers and one key. Soundboard shortcuts use the same recorder. Esc cancels; closing the window or switching away also cancels recording.

Monky imposes no key-count limit, but keyboard rollover and operating-system restrictions still apply. Shortcuts are observed passively without reserving keys: Q remains available to the focused application. This does not bypass anti-cheat or security restrictions. Holding a chord does not repeat the action; release a required key before triggering it again. Extra modifiers prevent activation.

Shortcuts work while Monky is focused, minimized or in the background, including during calls with an active microphone. On Windows, shortcut capture runs in a separate process to avoid interference from WebRTC.

Mute microphone, deafen and mute soundboard also work outside a call. Your choice is saved and respected when joining a voice channel, so you can join already muted. Outside a call, these actions only change your local preferences without sending voice-state updates to the server. Camera, screen-sharing and stop-soundboard shortcuts only act while you are in a voice channel.

New shortcuts store physical key positions and display layout-specific labels, including º and ñ on Spanish keyboards where supported by the system. On Windows, conversion uses the focused window's actual layout, not a fixed US table. After switching input language/layout, release and press the chord again. If the system cannot distinguish two keys in a chord, that chord is not registered, preventing an incorrect action. Older shortcuts remain readable; re-record an unrecognized combination from another layout. Global capture may require input/accessibility permissions. Push-to-Talk keeps its separately configured keyboard key or mouse button.

Quality & sharing

The profile controls what you transmit; it does not increase someone else's camera or screen resolution. This tab also groups codec, local sharing preview, screen reception and telemetry; profiles still include voice and camera settings.

Screen reception

Automatic PiP is enabled by default under Quality & sharing. Leaving the stage, minimizing Monky or hiding it to the tray opens the focused broadcast you are watching in a floating window. Merely switching windows or apps (Alt+Tab) while Monky stays open on screen does not open PiP. With two focused broadcasts, it uses the one focused most recently. Cameras, your own preview and broadcasts you have not chosen to watch never open automatically. A notification explains the action and where to disable it. PiP survives app navigation, but closes when you stop watching, leave the call, lose access or the broadcast ends. Returning to the call's stage, including after restoring or reactivating the window, closes automatic PiP and keeps the same broadcast focused without restarting playback. Bringing Monky forward while viewing another channel or Home does not close PiP. The manual PiP button remains available. If you close automatic PiP while away, it stays closed for that absence and upon return; leaving again can open it again. PiP opened with the manual button takes the broadcast off the stage: it leaves focus and its card turns black, showing Playing in Picture-in-Picture and a Bring back button. This PiP stays open while navigating the app, switching apps, minimizing or restoring the window, including when moved to another monitor. Bring back, Back to Monky or X close PiP and return the broadcast to the stage without restarting playback, focused if it was focused when PiP opened. Opening PiP for another broadcast also returns the previous one to the stage. PiP is Monky's own always-on-top window. It appears without taking focus from the game or app you are using and keeps showing the broadcast while Monky is minimized. Drag it from anywhere to move it and from its edges to resize it; it keeps the broadcast's aspect ratio and reopens at its last position and size. Hovering reveals its buttons: Back to Monky brings Monky back, even when minimized or hidden in the tray, and opens the call's stage with the same broadcast, without restarting playback. X closes PiP without bringing Monky forward; with manual PiP, the broadcast returns to the stage.

Under Settings → Quality & sharing → Screen reception, choose Native or Chromium. On Windows and macOS, Native is the default, using the runtime included with Monky. There is no automatic fallback: if it fails, the message explains where to select Chromium manually. The choice is saved and applies when you start watching or click Try again; for an open screen, stop watching and watch again. Camera, voice and outgoing screen sharing are unchanged.

Chromium has a known limitation: the Windows scenario showed FPS drops and periodic freezes. The warning remains visible in settings; selecting this receiver does not fix the limitation. An existing saved Chromium choice on macOS is preserved. Native macOS requires 14+ and uses VideoToolbox/IOSurface, not libobs. Profiles up to 4K/120 FPS depend on source, hardware and network; they do not guarantee that sustained rate on every Mac.

Quality profiles

Profile	Audio	Camera	Screen	When to use
Light	24 kbps	360p	360p / 30 FPS	Slow or unstable internet
Standard	32 kbps	480p	720p / 30 FPS	General use (recommended)
Sharp	48 kbps	720p	1080p / 30 FPS	Text, code and documents
Smooth	64 kbps	1080p	1080p / 60 FPS	Games and video
Ultra	64 kbps	1080p	1440p / 60 FPS	1440p monitors
Cinema	64 kbps	1080p	4K / 60 FPS	Fast internet and a strong GPU
Extreme	64 kbps	1080p	4K / 120 FPS	The most Monky can do; a GPU with AV1 is recommended

No profile goes below 30 FPS, and the camera always uses 30 FPS. If the encoder rejects a profile (for example AMD hardware H.264 at 4K/120), Monky lowers the FPS, says so and saves the result as Custom. Older Gaming or old Ultra (1080p at 60 FPS) settings move to Smooth, the same step.

These are configuration targets, not guaranteed observed FPS or bitrate. Devices, codecs, networks, participant count and content affect the result.

The Custom profile offers dropdowns with the most common values — aspect ratio (16:9, 16:10, 4:3 and 21:9), resolution (from the lowest up to 4K), FPS and bitrate. Every dropdown keeps a Custom... entry that reveals the plain number box for values outside the list, within the same ceilings: 3840×2160, 80000 kbps for video and 240 FPS for screen sharing (120 FPS at 3840 px wide or 2160 px high). Camera ceilings remain 120 FPS, or 60 FPS at 4K. Audio retains its own 510 kbps ceiling. Changing the aspect ratio keeps the resolution closest to the one you were already using.

Sharing your screen while gaming

Encoding video consumes resources. Acceleration depends on the hardware, driver and support confirmed by the backend. On Windows, Automatic prioritizes hardware AV1, then hardware H.264; on macOS it prioritizes VideoToolbox H.264. Only after proving no compatible hardware is available does it use software H.264, with a notice. In Manual, choose Hardware/Software and H.264/AV1. On macOS, Software + AV1 uses native libaom on the CPU; start at 720p30 and adjust based on observed delivery. Hardware AV1 is not available in this backend. An unavailable Manual combination is blocked without silently changing the codec.

The picker separates Screens and Windows. Each window appears only once in the window list; there is no list of detected games. After selecting a window, the method cards offer Normal by default and Game Capture as an explicit choice. Changing the method keeps the same window and its audio choice. Selecting another window resets the method to Normal rather than carrying over the previous window's Game Capture choice.

Monky's own window can be shared only without audio to prevent call feedback. Selecting it turns the audio switch off and disables it, with an explanation. Selecting another application restores your previous audio choice.

With a screen already shared, Add screen broadcasts another one alongside it. Each person can share up to 8 screens. From the third on, Monky warns, once per call, that each extra screen uses more of the sharer's processor, graphics card and connection. On servers that have not been updated yet, the limit is still 2 screens per person.

Each application window carries its own application's sound, so several applications can be shared with sound at the same time. Two windows of the same application, however, cannot carry sound together, because they would capture the same sound twice. On Windows, an application's sound includes the programs it started, so the same applies to related applications, like a launcher and the game it opened. A whole screen's sound is the entire computer's and includes every application's: while a screen shares sound, no other share can carry sound. In these cases the share does not start; a notice explains why and highlights the audio switch, which must be turned off to continue. On macOS, any share's sound is the entire computer's, so only one share at a time carries sound.

On Windows, if applications already share sound and you share a screen with sound, through Add screen or Switch Source, Monky asks which sound to use. Use screen sound moves the sound to the screen, and the windows keep broadcasting without sound. Keep app sound, or closing the question, shares the screen without sound.

Choosing the Game Capture card does not start capture or test the application: you must confirm with Share, Switch Source or Add screen. Only methods advertised by the backend are available; compatibility with the selected window still needs to be checked. If Game Capture becomes unavailable, Monky closes that attempt and notifies you that it is trying Normal for the same window. The notice stays visible for 8 seconds to give you time to read it and reports an attempt, not an already confirmed image. It never chooses another monitor or window, uses Chromium, or disables anti-cheat, Trusted Mode or other protections. If Normal also fails, the error remains visible; there is no switch to another source.

A closed or disconnected source notice appears for 8 seconds without requiring dialog confirmation. Repeated failures from the same source are grouped until it recovers; their details remain in the logs. Once the preview displays video again, a new failure can trigger another notification.

For games, try Game Capture first, following the OBS recommendation. It is not intended for every window; games such as CS2 may prevent this method. Normal mode may require the game to run in windowed or borderless fullscreen mode, without changing protections. This also follows the official OBS guidance; the window name or title is not used to promise game detection or compatibility.

Under Windows, Does my game work with Game Capture? opens a local guide searchable by title or alias, such as CS2, GTA SA and LoL. Its 14 references to OBS limitations and guidance are grouped into Use Normal (the recommended alternative for those cases) and Needs attention (specific precautions). This is not a complete compatibility list or a guarantee for Monky. An absent game means only no catalogued information, not incompatibility; try Game Capture first. The guide does not access the network, test games, start capture or change your selection; its official-source link opens the browser only when activated.

The guidance covers DirectX 12 in Fortnite, separate League of Legends client and match windows, and permission or multi-GPU limitations. The match window must be selected explicitly. There is no automatic GPU selection or permission elevation, and no recommendation to disable protections.

Opened a game or another window after the picker? Use Refresh. There is no background polling. If the source remains available, its tab, selected ID, method, quality, audio and Keep aspect ratio choice are preserved. A source that disappears loses selection and is never replaced automatically. Confirmation is disabled while refreshing; failures remain visible and can be retried in the same modal.

One last tip that holds for any capture software: sharing the game window usually costs less than sharing the whole monitor, and playing in borderless fullscreen avoids the mode switches that make a game hitch.

Notifications and Sounds

Adjust personal sounds and notices here. This does not change mention permissions or events published by the server; those belong to server administration.

Under Custom sounds, every app effect has preview, file selection and reset controls: microphone, received audio, joining/leaving calls, starting/stopping screen sharing, chat notifications, pressing/releasing push-to-talk and reconnection. Selected files survive restarts, including effects with synthesized defaults. Resetting an effect restores its original file or tone; Reset all removes every override. This does not enable chat notifications or PTT cues that you disabled in their respective options.

Per-server notifications and unread messages

Right-click a server in the sidebar to Mute server or, under Server notifications, choose between following the general setting, all messages, mentions only or muted. The choice applies only to that server, is saved on this device, and each channel can still override it from its own menu. Muted servers show a crossed-out bell; mentions are still highlighted in red.

Servers connected in the background show a white dot when there are new messages and a red one when you were mentioned; collapsed folders summarize the servers inside. In the same menu, Mark server as read clears every channel. Right-clicking also offers Mark folder as read on a folder, Mark all servers as read on the empty part of the bar, Mark all conversations as read on the Home button and Mark as read on each direct conversation.

Folders in the server bar

As in Discord, drag a server and drop it on the middle of another one to create a folder with both; the target turns into the folder shape before you let go. Near the top or bottom edge the position line appears instead, which only reorders. Dropping on a folder adds the server to it, and dragging servers out until one is left removes the folder.

Collapsed, a folder shows its servers' icons in miniature; open, a coloured background wraps its servers. Opening and closing slide the servers with a smooth animation, which is skipped when the system asks for reduced motion. In the folder's right-click menu, Folder settings sets its name and colour, Close all folders collapses every folder and Ungroup folder returns its servers to the bar. Unnamed folders use their servers' names in the tooltip.

Bot tools

Inspect installed tools, storage, cache, authorizations and local tasks. A server grant does not authorize a bot to run tasks on your computer without consent.

Open full-size screenshot (new tab)

The client centralizes management; consent is specific to each bot and device.

Revoking authorization or removing a tool ends affected work. Read Tools on your computer before approving a request.

Bot data on this computer lists what miniapps kept here, such as saves, separated by server, account and bot, with the space used and the current decision. The list includes servers and bots you no longer use; Delete removes that bot's data and preferences. See Data kept by the bot.

Logs

Inspect client events to identify the failing stage of an operation. Review and remove sensitive content before sharing logs. The Server Monitor is a separate query, subject to that server's permissions.

Diagnose screen sharing

1. Under Settings → Logs, enable Record logs before reproducing.
2. Share the window, game or monitor and note the time, mode and selected quality. If possible, ask another participant to watch, change quality and stop watching. Also test pausing the preview when the app loses focus.
3. Stop sharing and use Export logs in the same tab. For receiving problems, also export the logs from the participant who was watching.

SCREEN_SHARE entries prefixed with Native screen show source admission, encoder preflight (including failures before a source exists), backend, resolution/FPS/bitrate, per-quality pipelines, watch/stop, Game-to-Normal fallback, preview states and resource retirement. retained: true means cleanup still retains resources; it is not confirmation of shutdown. Correlation identifiers are hashes, not window titles.

These diagnostics do not record pixels, individual frames, SDP/ICE, credentials, complete payloads or free-form error messages/stacks. Failures record their stage and available native codes. In nativeDiagnostics, NVENC diagnostics preserve known operations/capabilities, API version, numeric status, enumeration counts and observed/required values. H264 color failures preserve the observed fullRange, primaries, transfer and matrix (null means absent), including nested errors. Other text remains omitted. Identical repeats are limited. Polling metrics does not add a line per update. Entries use the existing local log storage and rotation; while Record logs is disabled, new events are neither persisted nor recovered retroactively. Logging continues while the export dialog is open; the exported file includes events written up to confirmation.

Diagnose slowness

If Monky becomes slow (hovering, opening menus or scrolling responds late), keep Record logs enabled, note the time and export the logs before restarting the app.

• UI / Slow rendering detected: at most one line per minute with slow events (200 ms or more) and long frames. processingMs measures the app's own code. A high inputDelayMs without processingMs or long frames points at Chromium's compositing rather than the app; a high presentationDelayMs with low processing points at compositing or the GPU. On Windows, the delay only starts counting once the main process reads the event: a busy main process shows up as Main process blocked.
• APP / Main process blocked: the main process, which receives clicks and keys before the interface does, went 200 ms or more without responding within a 30-second interval. maxMs is the longest stall; a high browserCpu points at Monky's own work, a low one at waiting for the disk, the system or another process. The first interval after opening and the first one after the computer sleeps or resumes are ignored.
• APP / Sustained renderer CPU and Renderer CPU recovered: the interface stayed above 70% of one core for 2 minutes, and when it returned to normal.
• APP / Process usage summary: average CPU (in % of one core) and memory per process every 10 minutes, with the main process's longest stall (mainThreadMaxMs), to compare against the slow period.
• APP / display changes (including refresh rate), GPU status (with a warning when compositing falls back to software), sleep and resume, minimizing/restoring the window, and Chromium processes that ended with an error, such as the GPU.

These entries do not include message content, window titles or paths from your user profile.

About and Updates

Check the version, look for updates and revisit the installed release's notes. Betas are prereleases and require opting in; prefer stable for everyday use. See Updates.

Window behavior and community links are also here. When hosting a server on this computer, distinguish closing the window, keeping the app in the tray and stopping the server: stopping the process affects connected participants.

Connection and interface

Enter the server when Monky opens

On Home, right-click a saved server in the rail and enable Join on startup. The choice is saved for that server. There is a single foreground destination: enabling it on another server replaces the previous one. A failed connection attempt leaves the saved destination unchanged.

The preference applies to future launches until you turn that same switch off; turning it off disables automatic entry immediately, without having to connect. It never starts stopped servers or joins voice. Other saved servers can still connect in the background when Automatically connect to servers in the list is enabled. When migrating older settings with multiple destinations, only the most recent choice is kept. A short animation accompanies the transition from Home to the server, unless reduced motion is enabled.

A background connection that fails is not repeated endlessly. If the server turns the sign-in down (wrong saved password, incompatible version or identity not accepted), Monky stops trying until you change the password in Edit connection (right-click the server in the rail), enter the server yourself or reopen the app. Other failures, such as an unstable network, a server that is still starting or one with no room right now (full, or with your identity's device limit reached), are retried at growing intervals of up to 10 minutes.

Section navigation

In app and server settings, selecting a category expands its section shortcuts in the sidebar. Submenus expand and collapse smoothly, including when switching quickly between categories. Click one to scroll smoothly to that part of the page. The current section is also highlighted while scrolling manually, without recreating the form or losing unsaved changes. Hidden or unavailable sections are not included in the navigation.

Submenu expansion and collapse, as well as scrolling through settings sections and emoji-picker categories, respect the system's reduced-motion preference: when enabled, navigation is immediate, without animation.

Tooltips and menus

Client tooltips use a compact dark design, appear after approximately 150 ms with the mouse and immediately during keyboard navigation. Esc dismisses the tooltip. Menus and selection lists share the same theme; use the arrow keys, type to find an option and confirm with Enter. Esc closes a selection list without changing its value.

The bottom-bar controls and the composer's attachment, emoji and code buttons have their own hover motions: the gear rotates, the screen-sharing arrow moves, the soundboard releases musical notes and the emoji laughs. The camera effect is an animated viewfinder, not a recording indicator. Clicks and state changes also receive brief visual feedback. The floating message-action toolbar does not receive these animations. The reduced-motion preference disables these effects.

In the Code block dialog, drag the bottom-right corner to adjust its width and height; the editor follows the dialog size. Size limits preserve at least 24 px of space between the dialog and the application window edges.

This styling covers the client interface. File dialogs and system-tray menus are still drawn by the operating system.

Starting another server during a call

Starting and viewing an owned offline server from Home or the server rail does not join voice automatically or interrupt the current call, microphone, camera or screen shares. Joining a different voice channel remains a separate action.

You can host several of your own servers at the same time, each on its own port; stopping one does not affect the others. When you create a server, Monky suggests a free port and refuses a port used by another of your servers. Servers created in earlier versions that shared a port are separated automatically: the one started last keeps the port and the others move to the next free one, without losing data. Starting never stops another server implicitly.

Server settings: immediate application

These settings are shared and live in the server name menu, not your personal gear icon. Manage a server explains immediate application, roles, channels, limits, voice mode and process version. For bot permissions and compatibility warnings, see Use bots.